Ahmad Mecklai, a nonpractising allopathic doctor, was more than a little surprised to receive a phone call at 3am from an oral cancer patient. The patient, a Kenyan national, had arrived in India a few hours earlier and was told to pay Rs 16 lakh to a Delhi hospital by 8am for his treatment.Malathy Iyer | TNN | May 07, 2017, 10:30 IST

MUMBAI: Ahmad Mecklai, a nonpractising allopathic doctor, was more than a little surprised to receive a phone call at 3am from an oral cancer patient. The patient, a Kenyan national, had arrived in India a few hours earlier and was told to pay Rs 16 lakh to a Delhi hospital by 8am for his treatment. Distraught by the short deadline and the steep medical fee, he approached his embassy officials who connected him to Dr Mecklai, who runs a medical tourism company from Chembur.

Contrast this with the experience of Wockhardt Hospital president Anupam Verma. “A young Nigerian woman and her child were abandoned at our Mumbai Central hospital two years back. The woman completed her treatment in two months but stayed on for another two because her husband left,'' he said. The hospital waived off most of the bill and approached the local Nigerian community in Mira Road to end the stalemate. “This isn't the only time we had problems with overseas patients,“ added Verma.

Doctors, too, have their own set of problems. A senior surgeon from south Mumbai said he prefers not to take on foreign patients with whom he can't speak a common language. “Too much is lost in translation,“ he said.

Clearly , as Maharashtra health minister Dr Deepak Sawant pointed out ­ not once, but twice last week-guidelines are needed to smoothen out medical tourism; both patients and hospital administrations have several “trust issues“ to recount. (Around 1.5 to 1.8 lakh medical visas are issued by the Indian government annually , but analysts say the medical tourism sector can double to US$ 8 billion by the fiscal year 2020 from US$ 3 billion in 2015.) The world watched last week as Egyptian patient Eman Ahmed's sister Shaimaa levelled allegations against Saifee Hospital and its team of doctors. Eman, once touted as the world's heaviest woman at 500kg, reduced to 170 kg in three months, but Shaimaa said the hospital had promised to make Eman walk. Saifee Hospital chief operating officer Hufaiza Shehabi felt “cultural and social differences“ were responsible for the fracas, which finally needed the minister's mediation. It also prompted Dr Sawant to moot the need for “standard operating procedures“ for preparation of documents, sharing of information with patient's relatives as well as the embassy of the patient's country .

A hospital administrator who doesn't want to be named said “processes“ are important to establish “an equation“ between the foreign patients, doctors and the hospitals. “All three have to be in sync or problems can arise,“ the doctor-CEO said. Wockhardt's Verma added that though hospitals have their protocols, a central set of guidelines would help regulate the sector.

Dr Mecklai, whose firm AAA Health Care was the first in the country to get the central government's accreditation, said processes are very important to avoid clashes. “When we get an inquiry , we prepare a document detailing offers from various hospitals, including the cost, the length of stay in hospital as well in the city,“ he said.

Incidentally , the Kenyan patient who called him came down to Mumbai for treatment at a new five-star hospital that cost him Rs 8.5 lakh over three months.

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